About Me

I'm a SAHM to three crazy boybarians and have been married to my sweetie for nineteen years. We homeschool, in part for the ever-present opportunities to blow things up in the name of education, and I write on occasion for money.
My work can be seen in Memory Makers, Scrapbooks Etc., Family Fun, Home Education, ScrapStreet, Scrapbook News & Review, Art Journey Journal and A Card a Day by Paper Crafts magazine.

At low speed, mix flour and milk mixtures into egg mixture alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour.

Spoon batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until top of cake is slightly golden and a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool slightly, then turn out of pan and discard parchment.

Whip together butter and cream cheese. Beat in lime juice and then powdered sugar. Add more lime or sugar to taste.

When cake is completely cooled put bottom layer on serving plate and top with frosting. Add top layer of cake.

Whisk together confectioners sugar, remaining 2 tablespoons of lime juice (add more if icing is too thick), and spread on cake. Sprinkle with remaining coconut.

And your done! Um...no... we sampled alarge slice bite and it seemed like a cake that forgot to get dressed that morning. Where's the frosting????

So we took a gamble and I tried my hand at frosting a decorated, glazed cake. Nutso, right?

Nah! It was STONE! COLD! AWESOME! I even had a small piece, and I never eat cake.

Next time I want to make a few changes - and yes, there will definitely be a next time.

Most importantly, I plan to skip the glaze and instead make a simple syrup reduction of water, sugar and lime juice. Then I'll brush the cake layers with - or possibly poke them with a fork and pour it down the holes *swoon* and then frost with the lime cream cheese and top with coconut. Yum!

Friday, January 28, 2011

I'm laid up today so I thought I'd tell you about things we're newly crazy about:

1. Artisan Bread

As a bread baker, I was really skeptical about no-knead bread; especially recipes without milk, butter or eggs, but now, I'm a total believer. Having dough in the fridge ready to be baked is 57 kinds of awesome!

2. Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction

I don't think my boys have ever loved a project book with the ferocity and obsession they love this one with. Here's what Popular Mechanics has to say:

...with the advent of modern household products and office supplies—binder clips, clothespins, rubber bands, ballpoint pens, toothpicks, paper clips, plastic utensils, and (of course) matches and barbeque lighters—troublemakers of all stripes have the components needed to build an impressive, if somewhat miniaturized, arsenal.

Toy designer John Austin provides detailed, step-by-step instructions for each project, including materials and ammo lists, clear diagrams, and construction tips, for mayhem-loving MacGyvers. The 35 devices include catapults, slingshots, minibombs, darts, and combustion shooters. Build a tiny trebuchet from paper clips and a D-cell battery. Wrap a penny in a string of paper caps to create a surprisingly impressive “bomb.” Several of the projects even include variations where combatants mount laser pointer sights to their shooters to increase their accuracy.

Finally, once you’ve built your armory, the author provides plans for a Top Secret Concealing Book to hide your stash, as well as targets for shooting practice. Never let your personal space go undefended again!

3. Small Batch Baking.

What an awesome concept. The basic idea is that when you want brownies (or cake or cookies, or pie) that's fine. The problem comes in when you make a 9x13 pan of brownies, have the one you wanted and then six more because the whole pan is sitting there tempting you. With small-batches you make individual desserts and have none of those pesky leftovers to deal with. Brilliant, no?

In our house this is especially wonderful as my boys love to bake and this saves us having a cake, cookies, brownies and cinnamon rolls all at once.

4. Safety Can Openers

I know we're a little late to the party on this one, but these are great and so much cleaner then the blade dipping into your food. A lot of the small batch cakes are baked in cans so having a dull edge was a must for me - can't have the kiddos slicing up their fingers. this is the one we have. It's awesome.

5. Stainless Steel Cookware

I wanted to get away from icky, toxic Teflon for years now, but the horror stories about the sticking-ness of Stainless scared me away. We took the plunge as our pots and pans were in truly desperate need of replacement (the Teflon peeling reminded me of bad sunburns I'd had in the 80's) and I love them. Yes, there is a right way to cook with them and it's no big deal. We've made all sorts of things including fried pot stickers and the browning you get from stainless is amazing! Here's mine:

Just so you know, the links are affiliate links so I'd get a commission if you bought something. This has never happened, I just like the convenience of the links imbedded in Blogger - no wandering the internet to find pics etc.

Do you like the new blog header? I realized the old one had been up for about a year and a half... oops.

Thanks for all the kind words yesterday. I got to thinking and seeing the same old me in the mirror could be a lot worse.

My foot is less swollen today though still discolored - I'm getting there :-)

Here's another one of the sketches I'm trying to clear off the table.

Isn't it a fun design? I can see using it again and again.

While I have you here, can I get some advice?

I was cleaning up my sewing space and couldn't bear to throw out my itty-bitty scraps. So instead I found some fusible webbing (?) that I bought for some project years ago and ironed them all together into one gorgeous piece.

Then I covered the whole she-bang with matte medium and added bits of Gauche Alchemy ephemera. I saw this technique in the most recent CPS and thought - why not?

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

*Sigh* I have an overuse injury in my left foot. The doc was awesome, he's a post-back-surgery running enthusiast so he really got me. He has me off my feet until the weekend, short 5 mile run on Saturday and reduced mileage until my race in February. It could have gone a lot worse. That said, there's a swollen area above my 5th metatarsal and the peroneal brevis tendon is looking freaky. I can't make my baby toe do what it should... like stay down for an x-ray. See above... it's standing while everyone else is sitting. What a rebel.

I'm feeling a little persecuted. So far in the last week I've had severe vision disturbances (spinal related), an ovarian cyst ruptured (sorry if that's TMI) and I passed my one year NOW EVERYTHING IS SUPPOSED TO BE WONDERFUL date and... well... everything's not wonderful.

I jumped out of bed that morning excited to see the new me and the old me was staring back. Kind of naive, no?

As they say though, on with the show :-)

I love Sketchy Thursdays. It's my favorite sketch site ever (sorry Page Maps, I'm very fond of you too). Each week this month I've printed the sketch (or drew it on old junk mail envelopes), printed my photos, picked out some paper and then piled them in a neglected stack at the end of my table. Please tell me I'm not the only one who does this?

Monday, January 24, 2011

Way back in 2005 while surfing the wave of Harry Potter Mania I stumbled across Overstock.com and filled my cart with books on tape - Cassettes! Talk about a blast from the past. They wooed me with their $2.95 shipping and while I was drooling over Rowling's latest, I stumbled into the Bedding & Bath department. Oh. My. Heaven. It wasn't long before I realized that with Overstock I could buy Luxury Bed linens for less then run of the mill ones at the store. Score. So I loaded up on gems like these:

Huge kudos to Patrick Byrne for starting such a great people (and earth) friendly company. Here's a snippet:

The purpose of Worldstock Fair Trade is not to make money, but to create thousands (someday millions) of jobs for artisans in the most destitute regions of the world. Our mission is to provide customers with small-lot produced goods at an affordable price. By doing so, we locate products made by craftswomen and craftsmen from around the world. We emphasize sustainability, choosing environmentally friendly products that won't burn up natural or human resources. We strive to provide our customers with exclusive products, including handcrafted clothing, jewelry, ceramics, furniture, and much more.

This is my first piece of handmade jewelry from Worldstock Fair Trade in '07, I always get tons of compliments when I wear it.

I've received several other great pieces since then and the quality has been outstanding. And yeah... I'm naturally blonde... not the best look for me *grin*

To help you all share in the fun I've got some discount codes to share.

Discount code 121745 is good for 10% off Overstock products (excluding movies, books, and electronics). This discount code never expires, however, it can only be used once per email address.

202234 - free shipping promo code for electronics

Just so you know:

All the ideas and opinions expressed are my own. No monetary compensation was received for doing this post, however, I was provided with a discount code.

I promise I've been art journalling. Just I stamped with a TP roll and it took eons to dry. Then I wrote gnarly journalling in the circles and it looked BAD so I had to gesso them over and start again. Then several of those circles took most of my ten minutes... I was just a slow, pokey girl this week. But the end result makes me happy. Julie Fei-Fan Balzer uses grids and circles in a lot of her work and it always looks so awesome, I wanted to give it a try.

A few things about cakes, I always sift my dry ingredients. Some folks just whisk them but sifting incorporates the ingredients better and helps avoid the little globs of baking soda that are so gross to find in a bite of cake.

Love this stage. So full of potential:

Then you add your liquids and get batter. This is my stress spot when baking.

Will I equally divide it between pans? Did I forget the eggs? Will it rise? Will it fall?

The cake is supposed to be a three layer cake but ours is only two. First, I only own two cake pans and secondly, even if I did, we don't need a triple layer cake, on a Friday, before grocery shopping. Need to save something up my sleeve for birthdays and wedding days.

I split the batter in thirds, 2 cake pans and the rest as cupcakes. I put the cupcakes in the freezer for a later noshing date.

Voila!

Wanna see it again? I know, I do too. In fact, I keep opening the fridge and looking at the latest object of my affection.

Are you getting tired of all my Art Gallery Fabric sewing posts yet? I promise, I'm done... well... there are a few 1x1 and 2x2 pieces that might make it onto card but I'm more of less done. This pillow is made up of the final bits of fabric I had left from the lovely fat quarters I got.

I was sewing them into a single piece - seemed easier to store that way - and Brayden commented that it would make a nice pillow front. Smart kid that one. So some dental floss, fabric covered button making, stabbed fingers and a few swear words later I had a pillow I'm really proud of.

My sweetie came home late last night and promptly fell asleep on it so I guess it makes the cut.

And where did I rest of the fabric go? I went a little scarf crazy. Okay, a lot scarf crazy. I'm doing this Pay it Forward thing in 2011 and I thought some of my cold-climate compadres might like warmer necks.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Flat Iron Holder

Slide it in the sleeve

Tuck in the cord

Do up the button

Managing my flat iron was driving me crazy. It didn't come with a heat proof sleeve so I inevitably left it on the counter... for days on end. *blush*

This works fine at home but isn't so great for travel because getting ready is pretty much the last thing you do before you leave and you end up having to pack a 400 degree iron. Eek.

We went to the gym on Sunday and I made-do with a wash cloth wrapped around the hot iron and secured with a hair elastic. Not pretty, but I didn't burn a hole through my swim cap either.

It was just the catalyst I needed to make something better. This project was my first brush with Insul-brite the cool stuff that lines pot holders and oven mitts to make them heat proof and I have to say it's pretty awesome. And I used some more of the gorgeous Art Gallery Fabric my sweetie bought me. Yay!

I still need to improve my skills beyond those on par with The Grinch but I'm getting there. And my counter looks so much better without being cluttered up with my iron.

Friday, January 14, 2011

I've been slacking a bit on AJED as my days have been hard, packed and painful. One thing I've definitely noticed is how much more effort is required to AJ if you put your stuff away. It's a major change from having it accessible and out in the open. But the house is so much neater... what's a creative girl to do?

This page is a sort of personal melt down, rant, valve-opening-to-let-the-pressure-off piece. I wasn't trying to be pretty or eloquent or trendy. Just trying to get through a rough patch without a body count.

I'm really enjoying starting out with painted pages. It's weird as the color scheme is pre-set but it certainly beats the pressure of a blank page. I specifically picked a clashy, chaotic, angry color mix in my journal. I think the color and gashes express my thoughts as much as the words do.